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I’m Heidi – This site celebrates cooking, and aspires to help you integrate the power of lots of vegetables and whole foods into your everyday meals. The recipes you’ll find here are vegetarian, often vegan, written with the home cook in mind.

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A Vibrant Beet Caviar

I'm lucky to be the occasional recipient of Josey Baker experimentations. The other day Josey handed me a still-hot loaf of 100% einkorn bread - substantial, fragrant, a dark brown crumb with a craggy top-crust. It smelled like a great brewery - all malt, and grain, and warmth. And it begged to be treated right.
The first question to come to mind was slicing strategy...the consensus was: 1) Allow the bread to cool completely. 2) With this loaf - not too thick, not too thin. Not to digress too much, but when it comes to toast, the thickness or thinness of the slice is key. Some breads lend themselves to a thick slab - Blue Bottle Cafe (in downtown San Francisco) cooks an egg-in-the hole of Acme's pain de mie. Perfect. There are other breads I like thinly sliced and extra-toasted - Josey's rye comes to mind, also Anna's Daughters' Rye - a beautifully distinctive local bread. Once this was sorted, Josey got on with his afternoon, and I started thinking about what I'd eventually put on the bread.Silvena Rowe's book had been in my bag for a few days, I was reading it when I was on the bus, or waiting on a coffee. So I started paging through, and settled on a beet spread I knew would be beautiful - the sweet earthiness of the roasted beets accented with toasted walnuts, chives, dates, a bit of booziness, and a swirl of creme fraiche.

A Vibrant Beet Caviar

If you have bourbon or vodka on hand, you can use one of those in place of the cognac.

Ingredients

4medium beets, washed and trimmed

5plump dates, pitted and chopped

2tablespoonscognac (bourbon, or vodka)

4garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

2tablespoonslemon juice, plus more to taste

1/2cupchopped toasted walnuts

3/4teaspoonfine grain sea salt

3tablespoonscreme fraiche, plain yogurt, or sour cream

lots of freshly chopped chives

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400F with a rack in the center. Puncture the beets with a fork a few times, and roast for an hour, or until the beets are completely tender when you test by cutting into the center with a knife.

In the meantime, gently heat the cognac in a small saucepan. Place the dates in a glass bowl, and, when just hot, pour the alcohol over the dates. Jostle around a bit, and soak for at least 10 minutes.

When the beets are cooked and cool enough to peel, remove the skins and chop into cubes. Place in a food processor with the dates, cognac, and garlic. Puree until the texture is to your liking - I left a bit of texture here, but you can go smoother if you prefer.

Transfer to a serving bowl before adding the lemon juice, walnuts, and salt. Taste, and adjust the seasoning if needed. Serve swirled with the creme fraiche, and finished with chives.